Apprentice Shrine Maiden Volume 2 (Premium)

by Miya Kazuki

  “Sister Myne!” I looked over to Fran as he came running this way. Karstedt handed me to him and I let myself collapse into Fran’s arms.

  “High Priest, she has a fever!”

  “I would expect as much. Let her rest nearby and give her medicine. She has lost blood and was tangled in a trombe of that size. No doubt she has lost much of her mana.” The High Priest, having finished interrogating Shikza, took only one glance at me before looking away. Now that his helmet was off and I could see his expression clearly, he seemed even more furious than before.

  “Understood.” Fran sat me down in a warm spot where the sun hit, then took a bottle with a light-green liquid inside out of his bag.

  “Please drink this, Sister Myne. It is the High Priest’s potion.” Drinking something I didn’t recognize was intimidating, but he would probably force me to drink it whether I wanted to or not. Having no other choice, I went to take the bottle. But I had kept my arms raised to stop the flow of blood so long that they were like lead. I couldn’t lift either of them.

  “I’m sorry, Fran. It seems I can’t lift my arms.”

  Fran supported my limp back and brought the opened bottle to my mouth for me. The smell of the potion shot into my nose, so strong and similar to Chinese herbal recipes that it made me gag.

  “Fran, is this really okay to drink?”

  “The High Priest drank some himself earlier. It is a rejuvenation potion for exhaustion and mana that he personally prepared.”

  I could hardly refuse a potion that beneficial. And if the High Priest himself had drank some, I could trust that it wasn’t poison. I let it pour down my throat while grimacing at the strong smell.

  “Ngmmh?!” I hurriedly shut my mouth before I could throw it all up. Tears surged out of my eyes and my entire body shook. My tongue went numb and my throat burned like it was on fire. The horrible flavor was so intense and overwhelming it honestly made me think that I wouldn’t be able to taste any food for days after this. It was hard to imagine that this potion was fit for human consumption.

  Fran paled at the sight of me twitching with my mouth shut and ran over to the High Priest. “High Priest, Sister Myne appears to be in great pain....”

  “I sacrificed the taste so that it would take effect immediately,” replied the High Priest without even glancing in my direction. He wasn’t wrong, either, as I could already feel the weight lifting from my body and the fever cooling down.

  “...Wow. I think my fever’s gone.” The potion was so effective I couldn’t believe it. But it tasted so horrible that not even truisms about bad-tasting medicine being good for you could make me feel better about it. I could honestly see myself begging for him to improve the flavor. He probably wouldn’t listen since he had sacrificed it intentionally to improve its effects, but at the very least he could try to make it taste like kale juice.

  The knights finished eradicating the trombe while I was resting. Unlike the giant one, this trombe hadn’t made a crater. One of the knights said it was because it had bloomed from my mana. Naturally occurring trombes buried deep into the ground and sucked up mana from the ground for months, or at worst for years before sprouting. The roots ended up so deep that exterminating them was a Herculean task.

  “Everyone, form up!” The knights lined up in formation at Karstedt’s order. The only ones who didn’t were me and the guards who had been assigned to me. They had both taken off their helmets and were kneeling before the High Priest next to each other, eyes locked to the ground.

  “Myne, come here.” I was there with everyone else since I could move again. After being called by the High Priest, I walked up and stood a half-step behind him. I was so short that I made eye contact with the two guards once they lifted their heads a bit. As I had expected from their voices, they both looked younger than twenty, likely having just reached adulthood.

  Shikza had yellow-green hair that screamed personality, and deep green eyes filled with hate. He had a nice face, but he wore his arrogance on his sleeve and spoiled it all. His eyes made it clear that he considered me responsible for everything.

  Damuel had plain brown hair. His gray eyes were filled with worry, and he wore a deeply apologetic expression. I hadn’t noticed when he had the helmet on, but well, he felt like the kind of guy that was just asking to be bullied.

  “Now then. Shikza, Damuel. If you have anything to say in your defense, now is the time,” said the High Priest. Shikza lifted his head.

  “There is no need for me to defend myself. That girl is a commoner, and that alone is enough.” He spoke with such utter confidence that it was impossible not to realize he fully expected that defense to be enough.

  I pressed a hand onto my chest, overcome by the sheer horror that lurked beneath his words. He didn’t need to defend himself because I was a commoner. In this world, nobles trampling on commoners with impunity wasn’t just commonplace, it was accepted as the proper way of things.

  “You say that despite the fact that I told you not to let any harm come to her?”

  “The commoner hurt herself by standing up without warning. I am not to blame for that.” Shikza shook his head even after the High Priest spoke with dripping rage.

  “I see,” murmured the High Priest. He then looked at Damuel, who twitched in fear at the High Priest’s gaze before looking down and beginning to speak.

  “I was told to know my place and did not have the courage to defy him further. Forgive me.”

  The High Priest looked at Damuel, whose eyes were locked on the ground, and sighed. “Yes. As your defenses suggest, it seems we must each remember our place.” At the High Priest’s words, Shikza looked up with glee written on his face. He shot me a triumphant grin and I couldn’t help but grit my teeth with frustration while fiddling with a hole in my robes.

  The High Priest took a step forward. “Who here has the highest status, Shikza?”

  “You, Lord Ferdinand,” Shikza replied immediately, which told how obvious his answer was. But he didn’t get the intent of the question, and thus tilted his head a bit in confusion.

  “That’s correct. And I gave a clear order. Protect the apprentice shrine maiden. Let no harm come to her. If you knew your place, you would know what to prioritize and what job to fulfill. You are the one who needs to remember their place!”

  Shikza looked up at the High Priest in shock. His expression was baffled, and his eyes were open wide in disbelief. “But she is a commoner. A foolish child that is disturbing the temple’s order...”

  “It seems you do not understand the situation, so I will explain. Myne is an apprentice shrine maiden who has been given blue robes. We of the temple sought her entry due to her great amount of mana, and gave her blue robes with the Archduke’s express permission. Know well that by insulting her, you are insulting the temple and the Archduke himself!” declared the High Priest, and I heard everyone gasp—Shikza, Damuel, and even some of the knights lined up behind me.

  “As you know, our country does not have enough nobles. That means we do not have enough mana wielders to operate the systems of government. You should know that well, as one who returned to noble society from the temple.”

  It seemed that the High Priest and Shikza knew each other because Shikza had been raised in the temple as an apprentice blue priest. That would explain why he felt so much resistance towards a commoner like me wearing blue robes. All the blue-robed priests in the temple had blown up in protest over being treated on the same level as a commoner.

  “The fact is that, out of everyone in the temple, only Myne and I have enough mana to perform this ritual. An apprentice shrine maiden would never be here if we had a blue priest who could perform the ritual. I can express nothing but exasperation at anyone too foolish to realize that. Myne is here as an apprentice blue shrine maiden. She is here to perform the ritual. You did not harm any mere commoner. You harmed an apprentice shrine maiden who has been given blue robes.”

  The High Priest repeatedly emphasized that
I was an apprentice blue shrine maiden. Taken another way, that was a sign that he would not be able to punish Shikza if I were indeed “any mere commoner.” I squeezed the blue robes that I wore to protect myself and, although it was far too late for me to be doing so, thanked Benno for wisely advising me to negotiate for blue robes.

  “You ignored orders, abandoned your duty, harmed who you were supposed to protect, allowed a second unnecessary trombe to appear, disturbed the Knight’s Order, and gave everyone more work. Furthermore, the Order’s honor has been tainted now that one of its knights has harmed the one they were assigned to protect. Do not think you will get off lightly. The Archduke will inform you of your punishment before long.”

  The High Priest looked away from the two of them and turned to face the lined up knights. He then coldly looked down at Karstedt, who was kneeling in front of them all.

  “Karstedt. As the captain of the Knight’s Order, you are responsible for selecting these incompetent guards and training new recruits so poorly that they do not even listen to orders. I will inform you of your punishment at a future date.”

  “The failings of the Order are failings of my own. I deeply apologize for the trouble I have given you, Lord Ferdinand.” Karstedt seemed to have been prepared to accept punishment the moment he learned that the High Priest’s anger was justified. He bowed his head before the High Priest calmly without so much as a flinch, and so too did all the kneeling knights behind him.

  The Healing Ritual

  “Myne, we will finish the ritual while the potion is in effect.”

  Once he had finished reprimanding Shikza, the High Priest flourished his cape, touched his right gauntlet, and turned the stone into his white lion thing. The knights all stood up in turn and began bringing out their own creatures to ride.

  “Come here.” The High Priest held out his hand. I walked up to him as gracefully as I could, then extended my own hands. He lifted me up and this time I grabbed the lion’s reins so that I wouldn’t lose my balance. After nimbly jumping on behind me, the High Priest raised a hand. “Depart!”

  He gripped the reins and the once statue-esque white lion began moving as if it had been given life. It extended its wings far and flapped itself into the air, heading towards the ruins of where the giant trombe had just been rampaging. The trombe from a second ago had sucked the mana it needed out of my blood instead of the surrounding earth, so that was fine. But the giant trombe had left a huge crater where it had been, and if I didn’t perform the Healing Ritual to fill the ground back with mana, not even grass would grow on the crater.

  “...I feel that I have wronged you.” The High Priest spoke to me in a quiet voice from behind, perhaps because now that we were in the air he didn’t have to worry about other people hearing him. “I did not intend for you to be hurt, and I did not intend to expose you to such malice. And finally, I did not intend to put you in such a state that a potion was necessary just to give you enough temporary strength to perform the ritual. It was my foolish mistake for not ever expecting the Knight’s Order to go against my orders.”

  His tone was dripping with frustration and remorse. The guards meant to ensure everything proceeded smoothly had in fact done the opposite, and he was regretting assigning them to me at all. But he wasn’t responsible for Shikza going berserk, the malicious rumors about me being spread, or even my poor Devouring health.

  “It’s not your fault, High Priest.”

  “It is. All matters related to you are my responsibility,” he said, his voice firm. Given that the temple could not function without me, commoner or not, he considered it part of his job as High Priest to facilitate my assimilation into the temple. He was indeed the kind of perfectionist that couldn’t trust work to other people and ended up making life harder for himself by trying to do it all on his own.

  “Is the potion working, Myne?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good, then. I know very well that the ritual will place a great burden on you. But it is vital that we show the Knight’s Order that you are capable of performing your duties as an apprentice shrine maiden. I will protect you. Show them that you are fit to wear the blue robes. Shove it in their faces that you are essential to both the temple and the Knight’s Order, the protector of the lands. If the Knight’s Order recognizes your importance, you will have more tools to protect yourself.”

  The High Priest had protected me by stating that I wasn’t a normal commoner, I was an apprentice blue shrine maiden. I needed to do my job well enough that they accepted that I was worthy of the position.

  “...I’m nervous about it, though. This is the first time I’m performing the ritual. I don’t know if I can do it right.” I knew I had to do it, but I was terrified that I couldn’t. It was my first time performing a ritual.

  And yet, the High Priest blew away my worries with a short laugh. “Hmph. You don’t have anything to worry about. I will prepare the stage such that the Knight’s Order will have no choice but to accept you.”

  “...What?”

  “I only start fights that I know I can win.” His chilly voice sent shudders down my spine. It seemed that his anger at his plan being thrown out of order had not faded at all.

  “...Um, Damuel was really kind to me, and he did try to save me. He even yelled at Shikza for my sake, so please don’t take it all out on him.”

  The giant trombe had left a large disc of exposed earth in its wake, which made it look like someone had put a massive brown plate on top of the forest.

  “It feels like there’s enough space to found a farming town here once plants are growing again.”

  “A farming town here would make it quite difficult for the priests and nobles heading out for the Spring Prayer and the Harvest Festival. The earth will lose its strength once again without the Spring Prayer,” added the High Priest. It certainly would be difficult for the priests and nobles to go all the way deep into the forest to perform the ritual, not to mention the townsfolk who might want to go to town.

  The almost-lion descended to the center of the crater, and the High Priest escorted me to the ground. The Knight’s Order landed one by one, their animals returning to their gauntlet as they hit the ground.

  Once all the knights were lined up, they took off their helmets and knelt. It seemed that watching the ritual with helmets on was disrespectful to the gods. The High Priest took off his helmet as well, setting it down by his feet. The ground beneath us wasn’t the kind of black earth we saw back in the forest. It was reddish-brown and dry dirt, like you might find in a school’s sports ground.

  “High Priest, the staff.” Arno held out a staff a bit longer than a full-grown man, which the High Priest took.

  It was a divine instrument—the symbol of the Goddess of Water Flutrane—and it was necessary for this ritual. The staff was made of gold and the tip held a large magic stone, clear green and about the size of an adult’s palm gleaming in the sunlight. The handle was dotted with magic stones lined up next to each other, and most were colored. At a glance, I could see that it was charged up with plenty of mana.

  “Shikza,” the High Priest called out to the knights. Shikza rushed this way, his armor clanking as he speed-walked. The High Priest faced him and held out the divine staff. “You will perform the ritual.”

  Shikza blinked in confusion. The High Priest looked down at him coldly, then gave an exaggerated sigh. “You abandoned your duties, did you not? You must have plenty of mana in reserve. My initial plan was to begin the ritual myself to show how it is done, but due to your tomfoolery giving me extra work, I do not have mana to spare.”

  ...That’s a lie! You definitely have tons of mana to spare! The unfathomably foul-tasting potion he had concocted was as effective as one would expect from how hard he sacrificed the flavor. There was no way he didn’t have spare mana after drinking it.

  “Surely you are capable of this. Show Myne the power of a real noble.” The High Priest basically forced the divine staff into Shikza’s han
ds. He was clearly thrown off by this unexpected development, but the moment he noticed me looking at him, he glared at me and straightened his back.

  “O Goddess of Water Flutrane, bringer of healing and change. O twelve goddesses who serve by her side.” Shikza began chanting the prayer in a loud, clear voice. The large stone in the staff began to shine, and the ground around Shikza began to darken with the bottom of the staff at the center. Not long after the ground darkened, fresh green buds started to pop out.

  I couldn’t help but let out an excited “Wow!” I never thought that just gripping the divine instrument and chanting a memorized prayer would bring about such palpable change to the earth. It was like a science experiment I had seen in an educational video back in my Urano days.

  The earth changed color as it was filled with mana, plants blooming bit by bit. But the growing circle stopped once it hit a radius of about ten meters.

  “Keep going. The crater is far from filled.” The High Priest slammed Shikza once he tried to stop, refusing to allow him to let go of the staff, which continued to drain his mana as long as he was holding it. Shikza’s head was getting heavy from all the mana that had been drained out of him, and soon he collapsed right onto his knees.

  “Hmph. Despite all your arrogance, this was the best you could do. I see that the Knight’s Order truly had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to fill out their ranks.” Without even looking at Shikza, the High Priest grabbed the wavering staff before it fell. He then beckoned me over while holding it up. “You are the only one left, Myne. It is time to do your job.”

  I planted my feet far apart to steady myself and grabbed a hold of the staff, which was so large it would fall over if I relaxed my grip for a moment. Shikza had given a live demonstration of what to do, which eased my fears about messing up.

  ...The High Priest was basically telling me to show off, so I guess I should pour in as much mana as I can? I tightened my grip on the staff and lowered my eyes, breathing deeply. I took off the top of the box I usually kept tightly shut to contain my mana, allowing it to go free inside my body. I could feel the overflowing mana surge towards the staff in search of an exit.